Monday, October 27, 2014

Week Twelve: One Transfer Down In The Field

I cant belive i already have 6 weeks done in the field and am halfway done with my training. the other day realized that im already 1/8 the way done with my mission and my brain just about exploded.

Overall, this week went pretty well. Saturday night my companion got a nice surprise from the first councelor in the bishopric. we were teaching an active member in her little shop behind the counter and the first councelor and his wife came in to buy some stuff. he said something like "Elders of Israel! youre always prepared arent you? well how about you speak tomorrow morning in sacrament meeting? Elder Nolasco, you speak on reverence and Elder Wagner, you speak on Forgiveness ok?" we responded "...... uhhh.. sure, why not?" and he said "great! oh and each talk should be about 10 minutes long." so yeah that was pretty great. we spent our night scrambling to put together talks and then the next morning he told us that we didnt have to speak untill 2 more sundays. we were really relieved, but at the same time we were kind of mad because we had just spent the last 12 hours freaking out and then it was all for nothing, but at least i have my  talk somewhat ready for 2 weeks from now!

For some reason its really hard for mexicans to say my last name. they always say "waahner" haha its pretty funny. A few days ago someone read it, paused for a little bit, and then said "like los warner brothers?" hahaha so yeah thats acually happened a few times and theres a brother in the ward who always greets me with " Los Warner Brothers!" haha its pretty funny. Also, i guess theres some fameous musician or something with the last name wagner because a few people have asked me if im related to him and i just say no because i have no clue haha.

Another funny thing that happened this week: i was talking with an Elder who is from Baja California who is familiar with both the american and mexican culture and i was talking to him about why mexicans put chili powder in everything. seriously, chili powder is in EVERYTHING. i was saying something like "you know what would make this food better? Chili powder. You know what would make this candy better? chili powder. you know what would make this ice cream better? chili powder. you know what would make this shampoo better? chili powder." Then elder raya stopped me and said " you know, there actually is shampoo and soap with chili powder right? your companion has those" hahaha yeah thats mexico for you. if you want to make anything better, just add some chili powder.

Now that ive been out in the field for a transfer, ive been able to see a few different missionaries and how they conduct themselves and its pretty obvious to me who was ready to serve a mission and who wasnt. Future Elders: Please dont serve a mission untill you feel like you are mature and ready to be a representative of Jesus Christ. Serving a mission is a whole lot more than just going to a different country for 2 years and teaching some people about the church.  when you are a missionary, you are literally representing The Lord Jesus Christ and should be able to act in a way that Christ would. Please dont just serve a mission because youre 18 and everyone expects you to go. Make sure you have a testimiony of the things you are going to teach and if its necessary, wait a year or two or three. Elder Oaks' first talk as an apostle talks about why missionaries serve. i encourage you to read it, or listen to it, or watch it and find out for yourself why you are going to serve a mission.

Con Amor, Elder Wagner

Monday, October 20, 2014

Week Eleven: week 5?

im pretty sure that i have 5 weeks here, but im not really sure to be honest haha time is both fast and slow in the mission, its crazy. 

This week was pretty successful! we are getting more and more progressing investigators, but no one came to church so were going to have to work on that. i want to tell you guys about everyone were teaching and how they are doing, but i just dont have the time! i guess its sufficcient to say that we have a lot of work to do and a lot of peole to work with and thats good!

I dont have any crazy stories this week, but i think its because the crazyness of mexico is just normal now. whenever something weird happens i just kind of shrug it off and say ok, i guess thats normal here, and then move on with whatever im doing. The only good story i have is from last week. my companion (Elder Nolasco) was asking one of the elders from my district from the mtc if he had a green bag inside the mission offices. he said, "¿mochilla verde?" which means "green bag?" and the elder from my mtc district said "oh yeah! muy delicioso!" were still not really sure what he was thinking, but its all good because none of us speak spanish that well. 

Yesterday we had stake conferece and got to go to the chapel next to the guadalajara temple so we got to take pictures and see it, but we wont be able to enter the temple for a while. the guadalajara temple is almost identical to the spokane temple, so it was really cool for me to realize just how constant the church is. I am thousands of miles from spokane, and yet there is a stake center and temple where the exact same things happen in the exact same manner. the church is true people!

Heres a nice little slice of mexico from the home of one of the members in our ward.


​My companion and Elder Marion (One of the other 2 elders in our ward. hes from colorado)

​The Guadalajara Mexico Temple :D

​The Guadalajara Mexico Temple :D

Monday, October 13, 2014

Week Ten: one month in mexico

I cant really wrap my head around the fact that i have already been here for almost a month and i have almost 2.5 months in the mission already! well i guess its true, time flies in the mission. 

today we went to downtown guadalajara to do some stuff for our visas and i got to see all the elders from my district in the MTC!  elder hansen who was in my apartment with me lost 30 pounds already! its crazy what mexico can do to you! I thought it was rough to lose some of my pday to go do visa stuff and then i realized that i only had to travel about 30 minutes to get to the mission offices and other elders had to travel up to 9 hours and pay up to $100 (dollars) to get there while i only had to pay like 6 pesos which is like 50 cents haha.

My spanish is improving every week and i really see that the Lord is helping me so i can teach his sons and daughters in mexico. the other day my companion told me that in my sleep i was speaking spanish and english! i didnt even know i talked in my sleep, let alone in another language haha. Oh well, ill take that as a sign that my brain is at least partly in mexico mode and hopefully i can be be a fluent spanish speaker in my sleep soon! Oh and the other day i was in a store and this guy starts trying to talk to me in english, i usually just respond in spanish because they only know one or two things in english, but he actually spoke english and we started talking in english. it was really weird and uncomfortable for some reason, so ill take that as another sign that my brain starting to convert to mexicanism!

I keep seeing dopplegangers of people i know in america, its crazy. ill see someone out of the corner of my eye and think its someone i know, then when i look at them the second time i realize its just a mexican version of the person i thought it was. sorry dad, i dont think ill be seeing your doppleganger any time soon. there arent many 6 foot tall bald mexican men who wear bald eagle shirts.

We had 3 investigators come to church this week! and one of them brought his cousin! its such a good feeling to see people trying to come closer to Christ and fulfill commitments! During a lesson this week with a woman named Mercedes, we were talking to her about the plan of salvation and she told us that within the last year her son had passed away and one of her grandchildren had fallen off a balcony and died. all i could think about when she was telling us about her grandaughter passing away was how i would feel if one of my nieces or nephews passed away and how crushing that would be to me and my entire family. then i realized how amazing it was that we have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and that i had the opportunity to share with this woman the same joy that i have found in the plan of salvation and all the principles of the restored gospel. the church is true!

sorry if my emails are all over the place and hard to follow, but i dont really ahve time to proofread it all and make all the thoughts line up. i just kind of type whatever my brain thinks and that can be pretty weird and hard to follow, so i apologize if my emails dont make any sense haha. 

Con amor, Elder Wagner

Monday, October 6, 2014

Week Nine: Week 3 in mexico

Its weird to think that i already have 2 months in the mission. woah that went by fast, but at the same time its gone by really slow. So this week i had some pretty different experiences with a family that we found the other week. Im not really sure how everyone is related, but there are 2 parents and 2 sons (i think) that are investigating and are actually progressing pretty well. The other day Elder Nolasco and i stopped by to teach one of the sons and during the lesson i thought he was saying that he was in a gang before and got it a fight or something, but after the lesson elder Nolasco told me that he was saying he spoke to satan and had marks on his body from it and that there are 5 demons and he knew them all by name.... i guess i missed a little bit of stuff during that lesson haha. and then the next day we went to their house again and he was suuuuper drunk. the most drunk ive ever seen anybody. and he wanted us to teach him and his mom, but we ended up leaving him and we took his mom to general conference! sadly, we missed a lot of general conference because we were trying to chase down investigators and bring them, but we got to see a lot. and i got to listen to about 1.5 hours in english! I think the elders quorum president saw me trying to stay awake during the saturday morning session and decided that it would be better if i could understand what they were saying, so he set up a laptop for me and another elder in our ward who is from colorado and has about 10 months in the field. 

The other day on the bus i saw a guy wearing a University of Utah hat! im sure he has no idea what it means, but hey i havnt seen any byu stuff so i guess its 1-0 utah! 

The work in mexico is tough because everyone has a hard time saying no, so we have tons of people who will let us talk to them and teach them, but they dont really have any interest in our message. its hard because it seems like we have a lot of investigators, but they arent actually interested. 

We have one investigator named David Parra who is actually progressing and i believe will be baptized! he is the son of a less active member and i think he has a real desire to follow Christ and be baptized, so hopefully within the next few weeks ill have a picture of my first baptism!

Oh, and when we finally got the mother of the drunk guy to general conference we sad down and the first full talk we heard was from Elder Bednar and his first words were "my message is meant specifically for those who are not member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" holy cow, what a blessing! we may not have gotten her there for a lot of the session, but i feel like we got her there for the talk that mattered most!

Challenge: Read/listen to/watch the talk from David A. Bednar called character of Christ (at least i think thats what its called) its not from the most recent conference, but its amazing!

Thanks for all your love and support! -Elder Wagner